High-Performance Lithium Metal Negative Electrode with a Soft and Flowable Polymer Coating

The future development of low-cost, high-performance electric vehicles depends on the success of next-generation lithium-ion batteries with higher energy density. The lithium metal negative electrode is key to applying these new battery technologies. However, the problems of lithium dendrite growth and low Coulombic efficiency have proven to be difficult challenges to overcome. Fundamentally, these two issues stem from the instability of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) layer, which is easily damaged by the large volumetric changes during battery cycling. In this work, we show that when a highly viscoelastic polymer was applied to the lithium metal electrode, the morphology of the lithium deposition became significantly more uniform. At a high current density of 5 mA/cm² we obtained a flat and dense lithium metal layer, and we observed stable cycling Coulombic efficiency of ∼97% maintained for more than 180 cycles at a current density of 1 mA/cm².